Insect immunity: evolutionary roots of the mammalian innate immune system.

The innate immune system of vertebrates was considered as a survival of ancient antimicrobial systems that have become obsolescent by the emergence of adaptive immunity. Despite the fact that innate immunity lacks the elegance of genetic recombination mechanism to produce trillions of specific clones of immune cells and shows no memory, that view is out of date. Today, the innate immune system is rather regarded to be essential to the function of adaptive immunity by dictating the conduct of the acquired immune response [1] with the help of cytokines, complement, lectin receptors, antigen-reactive T-lymphocytes and B7.1, B7.2 proteins on B cells [2]. This review focuses on recent studies of insect immunology and summarises the currently known similarities between the innate immune system in insects and in vertebrates.

Novel heterogeneity of the leucocyte common antigen (CD45): disulfide-bound heterodimers between CD45 and an 80 kDa polypeptide.

The leukocyte common antigen, CD45, is one of the major glycoproteins on cells of hemopoietic origin showing considerable heterogeneity in both structure and expression. Biochemical heterogeneity has been attributed to differences in the primary sequence and glycosylation. In this paper we report an additional basis for generation of heterogeneity by revealing that CD45 can form disulfide-bound heterodimers with an 80 kDa polypeptide. Since a respectable fraction of the CD45 molecules is involved in heterodimer formation, it is suggested that the 80 kDa polypeptide could be involved in the regulation of CD45 function.

An anti-CD3 epsilon serum detects T lymphocytes in paraffin-embedded pathological tissues in many animal species.

The in situ identification of T cells has been difficult and restricted to frozen tissue samples of a limited range of species. In this study, we demonstrate that an antiserum recognizing a phylogenetically conserved part of the CD3 epsilon cytoplasmic tail detects T cells of many avian and mammalian species in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue sections. This antiserum enables the morphological characterization of normal and pathological lymphoid tissues and lymphoid infiltrations in experimental work and in animal disease.

Structure of fat consumption in Hungary and role of interpersonal relations in its modification.

In Hungary, fat consumption is inadequate both from a quantitative and from a qualitative point of view. Statistical data also reveal that per capita consumption of fat has become stabilized and that within the vegetable fats/oils, margarine consumption increases year by year. To accelerate this process, a study was carried out on the effect of personal persuasion on the consumption of vegetable oils and different kinds of margarine. The results of this investigation are summarized in our paper.

Monoclonal antibodies detecting components of the bovine immune system in formaldehyde-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens.

Although the use of monoclonal antibodies in the diagnosis of fixed human material is a daily routine, the lack of suitable reagents recognizing epitopes resistant to formaldehyde fixation is an obvious limit to extending this approach to veterinary research and practice. To find reagents that retain their binding capacity to the recognized epitopes in formaldehyde-fixed samples, bovine lymphoid tissue sections were immunostained using various antigen retrieval procedures with monoclonal antibodies raised against ruminant leukocyte cell surface molecules. As a results, a set of antibodies could be established that allowed the identification of different immune cell types including all or a distinct subpopulation of B and T lymphocytes, monocytes, macrophages, granulocytes, red blood cells, and vascular endothelial cells.

Phylogenetically conserved epitopes of leukocyte antigens.

The occurrence of conserved epitopes in the immune system was investigated on the leukocytes of cattle, river buffalo, sheep, camel, swine and humans by indirect immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. The distribution of the most conservative epitopes on leukocyte sub-populations suggests that the expression pattern of the proteins is similar. Western blotting experiments indicate that the recognized antigens are structural homologues.

Assignment of genes coding for leukocyte surface molecules to river buffalo chromosomes.

A panel of 35 somatic cell hybrids between river buffalo (Bubalus bubalis L.) and Chinese hamster was used in combination with 40 monoclonal antibodies to find synteny among leukocyte antigens and between already established synteny groups and leukocyte antigens. Six synteny groups were identified and three sets of markers were related to already existing synteny groups. Antibody IL-A165 detected CD71, which is syntenic with synteny groups U10 and U25, confirming that U10 and U25 are both are on a biarmed river buffalo chromosome. This would imply that U25 could be assigned to the short arm of the river buffalo chromosome 1 (BBU 1p), as U10 has previously been assigned to this chromosome. Antibodies Buf 32, Buf 24 and BAGB27 detected an antigen syntenic with U1 and U7. This finding suggests that U1, which is assigned to cattle chromosome 16, which corresponds to river buffalo chromosome 5q, is syntenic with U7, and that U7 is located on the short arm of buffalo chromosome 5. Furthermore, the gene coding for CD14 is assigned to U16, which is on cattle chromosome 11 and expected to be on river buffalo chromosome 12.

A new method in criminology: use of ELISA to detect AFP on different materials with monoclonal anti-alpha-fetoprotein.

A new method has been introduced to distinguish normal adult serum stains from fetal or newborn serum and amniotic fluid stains with ELISA in cases of criminal abortion and infanticide. The method is based on the sensitive detection of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) by a two-site enzyme immunoassay (EIA) following its elution with high efficiency from different materials (e.g., cotton, paper, synthetic fabric, or glass) by phosphate-buffered 0.5 M NaCl solution.

CD3-induced T-cell proliferation and interleukin-2 secretion is modulated by the CD45 antigen.

In the present study we have investigated the effect of CD45, CD45RA and CD45RO monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) on the CD3 receptor-mediated proliferation of human T lymphocytes. It is shown that CD3-induced proliferation of purified resting T cells and quiescent T lymphoblasts (QTL) is promoted via all of the investigated CD45-associated epitopes. It is also shown that the CD45 molecules are required to be cross-linked for costimulation. The MoAbs enhance the interleukin-2 (IL-2) production of CD3-stimulated QTL. The elevation of the IL-2 production correlates with the increase in CD3-induced cell proliferation suggesting that the CD45-driven regulation of T lymphocyte activation is linked to the IL-2 pathway.

Lipid composition of HDL subfractions in dog plasma and lymph.

We report the lipid composition of dog plasma and peripheral lymph lipoproteins as separated into pre-beta, alpha, and pre-alpha fractions by agarose gel electrophoresis. Plasma lipoproteins with alpha mobility have a composition different from that of plasma lipoproteins with pre-alpha mobility, having 9% versus 11% free cholesterol, 21% versus 17% cholesterol ester, 1% versus 16% triacylglycerol, and 69% versus 56% phospholipid. On the other hand, lymph alpha and pre-alpha lipoproteins have compositions that are quite similar (9% versus 7% free cholesterol, 17% versus 17% cholesterol ester, 2% versus 4% triacylglycerol, and 71% versus 71% phospholipid). The lipid compositions of plasma and lymph alpha lipoproteins are quite similar (9% versus 9% free cholesterol, 21% versus 17% cholesterol ester, 1% versus 2% triacylglycerol, and 70% versus 72% phospholipid). The lipid compositions of plasma and lymph pre-alpha lipoproteins are different (11% versus 7% free cholesterol, 17% versus 17% cholesterol ester, 16% versus 4% triacylglycerol, and 56% versus 71% phospholipid). Peripheral lymph lipoproteins with pre-beta mobility contained 15% cholesterol, 13% cholesterol ester, 10% triacylglycerol, and 61% phospholipid. Compared with plasma, peripheral lymph lipoproteins are free cholesterol-enriched in all fractions. Calculated stoichiometric ratios of lipid to apoA-I per particle, alpha lipoproteins have two molecules of apoA-I per particle, and pre-alpha lipoproteins have four molecules of apoA-I per particle.